Marcus Carvalho. It’s a name that, if you’re a veteran Pact Coffee fan, you’ve probably heard before. After all, we talk about him a lot. And although we work with over 200 farmers, we’re going to do it again.

Any one of those links will give you the backstory, but here’s the highlights:

We met Marcus at a tragic time in his life. He’d recently lost his wife, Maria, to a car accident - leaving him to run their farm alone. They’d inherited it from her father (Marcus had previously been a pro-footballer!), but taken their coffee production to a whole new level - making a real impact in the speciality market, and backing the move to bring tasters and coffee labs to the region.

He could have given it all up. Many would. But he didn’t - and we’re proud to say, as he’s recently told us, we’re one of the reasons why not. 

On a recent trip, through an interpreter, he told Will this:

I only have to thank you Will, because when I met you for the first time I met you in a very difficult phase of my life - when I was at the bottom of the well.

Through the partnership and basically the donation of the machine that sorts the beans, I started getting shine back into my eyes.

Yes, I was a new man.

Each day that I see you it is such a shame that I can’t speak English, so we could speak directly, but I have a lot of love and care for you. I am very grateful - everything that you can see here has to do with you.

I want to make clear that it’s not easy for us to do all of this and it’s been very painful,  and you deal with a lot of people, but I can only say one thing: that it’s worth it. That it’s been worth it, even more when I have partners like you.

Let’s be clear. The farmers we work with are not charity cases, they’re mostly experienced professionals who we’re lucky to have as partners.

But sometimes we can make a difference, and it’s incredible to hear that we have. And it’s all thanks to you. By choosing Pact Coffee, you’re making the changes in people’s lives you can see above. So thank you!